Jax Stumpes: Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University (2/9/2024)

Friday, February 9, 2024

Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University (2/9/2024)

Friday, February 9, 2024

Took the commuter train to Center City, Philadelphia. We took the scenic route including Logan Square before visiting the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University. This is our second visit to the Academy (8/24/2023).

The Tuscan Girl (1965, by Oscar Stonorov
and Jorio Vivarelli)

Logan Square:

AMOR sculpture (1998, by Robert Indiana,
installed 2015, relocated to Sister Cities Park
2016) was created by the same artist as the
iconic LOVE (1976); AMOR (Love in
panish and Latin) was made in response the
changing demographics of the country; it
was installed when Pope Francis visited the city

Play area in Sister Cities Park

Statue (1946, by Giuseppe Donato) of
Thomas Fitzsimmons, a signer of the
United States Constitution

Statue (c 1977, by Luis Antonie Sanguino)
of Don Diego de Gardoqui, a Basque who
served as intermediary during the Revolutionary
War, bringing funds and arms from Spain

The second pig's house of sticks

Memorial (1934, by Albert Laessle) to
General Galusha Pennypacker, the
youngest general to serve in the
Civil War, who is posed in classical
attire atop a gun carriage

Shakespeare Memorial (1926, by Alexander Stirling Calder;
installed 1928, relocated 1953) represents Comedy
Touchstone, the jester) and Tragedy (Hamlet) stands in
front of the Philadelphia Free Library (est 1891,
1911-1927, by Julian Abele in Beaux-Arts style) (KSS)

All Wars Memorial to Colored Soldiers and
Sailors (1934, by J Otto Schweizer) (KSS)

Budd BB1 Pioneer Aircraft (1932) was the world's first
stainless steel airplane and has been on display at the
Franklin Institute since 1935 (KSS)

Benjamin Franklin Insitute (est 1824, 1929-1934,
by John T Windrim in Beaux-Arts style)

Aero Memorial (1948, by Paul Manship,
installed 1950) is dedicated to the
aviators who died in World War I

Swann Memorial Fountain (1924, by Alexander Stirling
Calder) features three indigenous people representing
the rivers of Philadelphia: the Delaware, the Schuylkill,
and Wissahickon Creek

Food cart offering Philly specialties of
cheese steaks and water ice

In our first vist, we had the honor to meet Dr Ted D, who, we learned, was part of the team that discovered the fossil of Tiktaalik roseae, a link between the fishes and land animals. The fossil, being found on Ellesmere Island in the Canadian Arctic territory of Nunavut in 2004, is on loan from the Canadian Museum of Nature and the People of Nunavut for the currrent special exhibit: Life Onto Land: The Devonian.

Tiktaalik roseae (2008, by Flick Ford) helped answer the
question "of how terrestrial, limbed vertebrates
arose from aquatic, lobe-finned ancestors"

Skull bones and scales (in a slab of sandstone) from the
Devonian Period (~ 419.2 million and 358.9 million years ago)

The exhibit was displayed in the
William B Dietrich Gallery, the
former Library Reading Room

Life-size model of Tiktaalik roseae (2023, by
Tyler Keillor) is backed by a mural (2023, by
Aina Bestard) depicting a Devonian Swamp

The actual fossil of Tiktaalik roseae, which is the holotype
[a single specimen designated by the original describer(s)
of the form (a species or subspecies only) and available to
those who want to verify the status of other specimens] (KSS)

Sauripterus taylori, a Devonian fish-like
specimen with finger-like appendages, whose
discovery is credited to Dr Ted D, was
found in Lycoming County, Pennsylvania

Hynerpeton bassetti, a transitional fossil
tetrapod or early limbed vertebrate, was
another discovery credited to Dr Ted D;
this one was found in Clinton County, PA
(maybe the Red Hill Roadcut Fossil Site?)